Wire guides are commonly used to introduce a wide variety of medical devices into a patient's vascular system or other bodily lumen. For example, wire guides may be used in angioplasty procedures, diagnostic and interventional procedures, percutaneous access procedures, or radiological and neuroradiological procedures in general. A traditional wire guide may include an elongated core element and a flexible helical coil at a distal end portion of the core element. The wire guide may also include a handle at the proximal end of the core element to steer the wire guide as it is being advanced through a patient's vascular system or other bodily lumen.
Wire guides may encounter various challenges as they are moved through a patient's vascular system or other bodily lumen. As one example, in a pedal access procedure the wire guide is inserted from the foot (pedal) so that the wire guide can traverse up into the leg below the target site. In such a procedure, assistance may be needed to direct the distal tip of the wire guide into a branch of the limb's vascular system. For example, the wire guide may experience a 90 degree or greater turn from the main vessel into the branching targeted vessel. Therefore, a physician may insert a snare into the patient from a second access location above the target site. The physician may use the snare to grab the wire guide at the tip and direct it into the branching vessel. Although the snare may help guide the tip of the wire guide, this contact between the snare and the wire guide tip may permanently damage the tip.
A wire guide may also be damaged in other procedures. For example, the patient's vascular system or other bodily lumen may contain occlusions that impede the wire guide along its path. The physician may attempt to break apart the occlusion by pushing the wire guide through the occlusion, but this contact between the distal tip of the wire guide and the occlusion may damage the distal tip.
When the distal tip of the wire guide is damaged, further use of the wire guide may be difficult for the physician or dangerous to the patient. Thus, a need exists for an improved wire guide.